Changing the Course of Climate Change through Action

Compelled to act. Positioned to lead.

Our industry has an enormous opportunity to reduce emissions and energy usage – 15% percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to heating and cooling buildings. Another 10% of global emissions is related to food lost in transit or wasted after purchase. That’s 25% of global emissions that our company and industry can directly address.

And innovation is already available to significantly increase energy efficiency of equipment and systems and decarbonize heating and cooling of buildings and the transportation of people, food and medicine. If we accelerate adoption and scale up these technologies, it will advance us toward the UNFCC goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Right now, we’re helping large commercial and industrial buildings significantly reduce their energy use and carbon emissions by combining heating and cooling into one system, eliminating the need for gas boilers. These fully electric heat-pump systems recover and repurpose heat and are 350 percent more efficient than most gas boiler systems. When drawing energy from a green grid, they can be a zero-emissions solution for buildings and cities.

We’re also implementing other decarbonization technologies like thermal storage and connected controls for highly efficient, smart buildings to keep people healthy and comfortable, while reducing energy use and emissions for our customers.

Electrification of the cold chain can also contribute to the net-zero emissions goal, especially as more fleet operators commit to adopting electric fleets. To enable the transition to fully electric vehicles, we’ve committed to invest more than $100 million over the next three years to deliver a fully electric product in every segment of the cold chain by 2023 in EMEA and 2025 in the Americas.

In addition to pioneering technologies to increase energy efficiency and electrification, we are designing products for circularity and are leading the transition out of the high-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants. We’ve just announced that in North America, Thermo King is the first in the industry to transition to lower global warming potential refrigerants as standard for truck and trailer units.

An optimistic outlook.

Our shared purpose—to boldly challenge what’s possible for a sustainable world—is the foundation for our company’s innovation and growth. It has shaped our culture and has led us to create cutting-edge climate solutions that are paving a path toward a better future.